The state chronicle. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1883-1893, 1887-01-20
THE UNIVERSITY.
A Most Interesting Article on the w OTk
of the Shakespeare Club.
Especial Cor STATE CHRONICLE.


Especial Cor STATE CHRoSICLE.
CHAPEL HILL, n c., Jan. 15, 1SS7.-The
work of the Shakespeare Club shows that
our students are developing loving ap-
probation Of refined literature, and that
study ceasing to be a task, may become
an intellectual joy. Every fortnight the
Club meets and discusses one of the plays
Henry, the Fourth" and The Merry
Wives Of Windsor were discussed last
session Among other valuable papers
one read by Mr.. J. H Baker, of Tarboro,
maintaining that Ford had good grounds
for jealousy showed fine vein of humor
aud furnished US with much merrment.
The lady was warmly defended by Prof.
Toy, whose gallantry carried the day. Mr.
Robert q. Grssom, of your city, is per-
haps the most active member Of the Club,
constantly exerting himself to provide fOc
our comfort and entering into the literary
work with energy and ability The chief
spirit among US is DR.. Hume, whose init
mate acquaintance with the Great Master
and reverence for his genius add the charm
of personality to his scholarly and penetrat
ing criticisms.
At the meeting last Wednesday evening
by special invitation DR.. Hume delivered
a lecture on
ssNhakespeare as Moral Teacher"
!. '.In Shakespeare's moral teaching said
the Doctor, method is conspicuous by its
absence; but Shakespeare is one Of the best
and most inspiring Of guides, philosophers
and friends in our personal and social life.
His practical worth and utility is that he
offers for our instruction and delight the
whole rich complexity of human life, an
| cent and modern, with impersonal impair
| tiality. The most diverse, the most terri
BILE, the most inspiring eXemplitications of
psychological and ethical laws (apart from
the One Book are found in this world Of
| Shakespeare's writings. Our teacher here
is a genial sympathetic heart, sincere
and candid soul, a spiritual seer, and yet
| a judicious man Of the world, a dissector
of the follies OF humanity, while no less a
believer in the promise and potency of
| good in this same tainted human nature
Using the imagination as his best ally aud
interpreter Shakespeare prefers to avoid
didactic form and yet teaches all the more
effectively You justify him as he sh r~;s
+ how true morality is consistent with ma
! ture and reason and the law written on
| the tablets Of the heart confirms the re-
! vealed will of God. Could Dr.. johnson
| have paid finer tribute to his art than
| to say in half surprise that Shakespeare $
moral principles seemed to drop from him
unintentionally! In his comedy folly and
| lust in the most natural way unfold their
own absurdity and suicidal unreasonable
ness. Who would not rather have his
| teaching thus glide into the heart by the
way of the fancy and move us to sponta-
neous rational love of virtue and purity as
| the only true beauty than submit to the
| frigid defamation of Sackville or Jonson,
the splendidly regular dead perfection of
| the classic French drama. If we do
not like the artistic indirectness of
! Shakespeare, let us find our instruc-
ton in Herod and Termagant and the
| Vice pairing his nails or stirring up tie
devil with wooden dagger. One ounce
of passionate admiration of the beauty of
holiness leaping through the imagination
| into the heart will outweigh whole pounds
! of Poor Richards almanac philosophy,
based on policy and self-interest. Life
seems worth living in Shakespeares sun
shiny and breezy world TIE sweet rea-
sonableness of truth and purity are so
manifest in his work that your whole be
! ing is pervaded by their influence
Shakespeare initiates better than any
other writer the impartality of divine
justice. Penalty follows close on the heels
of transgression in Henry the Fourth, not
! openly but in the secret places of the heart.
Richard the Thirds intellectual greatness
and demonac will must yield to the in
| en-. He shows us too that
| evil is wrought by want of thought.
! AS well as by want of heart
Brave and honest Banquo and royal and
generous Duncan must suffer their fate.
A calculating reason might have saved
Cordelia; but, though she did not save
herself, she made ready her child-chanerd
father for transformation and eXpiatory
death.
Who so we'll as Shakespeare has illustrat
ed the conquering might, the changefu
moods, the sanctifying efficacy Of the noble
passion of love9 and who has so vividly
punished its false form, its lustful extreme
as he in the ruin of Antony's regal powers
| himself alone and SO the banished Duke
goes back from sweet woodland solitude
to his court and crown and Touchstone
the Jester learns ia the forest to become
a useful lover and helper of his kind
Motive and feeling are stimulated in Shake
speare nO& only by the hard dry logic OF
reason, but they are fired and quiekenec
intoShealthful activity under the gena
warmth Of that mighty moral agent, the
imagination"
LEX pede Herculem,' Judge of the lect
ure by these random disjointed extracts
DR.. Hume is marvellous worker. HI
"
profound, accurate, and polished learning
and scholarship. He teaches us all how
to work. by working himself, and not b,
pretentious sermonzing.
Mr.. Horace H. Williams lectured als'
during the week on Martin Luther to
large audience. Mr. Williams is one o
our young graduates, the first Master o
Arts under the new regime. He is fin
thinker and an ndefatigable student. Hi
lecture save much promise of future emf
nence as a pulpit orator.
Hon. John Manning lectured Saturda
} night on the history of land alienation
After hearing the story of the long strug
gle between land holders and would b
land buyers, with the lawyers as peace
makers and friends to both sides, those O
US who own lands were prouder than be
fore and those without land were bette
, satisfied with their poverty. The lectur
was learned, scholarly, pra ctical and witty
1t was we'll received by large audience
ONE WHO LISTENS.
What Mr.. Kitchen Thinks the Legisla
ture is Doing.